Winklejohn Calls Cerrone “Narcissistic”

Recently, Donald Cerrone opened up about his issues with coach Mike Winkeljohn, calling the gym a “puppy mill” saying that after a merger, the gym valued money over being loyal to its fighters.

“Loyalty is two sides,” Winkeljohn told MMA Junkie in response to Cerrone. “Cowboy is not loyal to anybody in the gym. He’s on his own. He does his own thing. He has not, from what I can remember in the last 10 years, ever helped anybody out with their own camp. He’s as narcissistic as they come.”

Winkeljohn says that Cerrone has pulled fighters and coaches away from the Jackson Wink team for his own BMF Ranch, and that none of his fighters had won any of their fights.

“I put up with it for a long time because Greg (Jackson) has the biggest heart in the world,” Winkeljohn said. “He’s like my little brother. But at the same time, it was causing division.

“If (Mike) Perry wasn’t at my gym, I’m so much happier now that I got rid of the division in my gym (and) somebody that doesn’t want to help others and wants to do his own thing. It has absolutely nothing to do with Perry, and everything to do with Perry.”

“What would ‘Cowboy’ do if it was his gym? Well let me think,” he said. “If I wanted to go into his gym use it when I wanted to, not be respectful, not help others, pull people and coaches away from the gym, and do things for myself, and then tell the new gym not to work with this person they’ve been working with because it’s all about yourself, what would ‘Cowboy’ do? I know what ‘Cowboy’ would do: The same thing I did, and that was basically, ‘Sorry kids, (expletive) that.’”

Cerrone faces Perry in the co-headlining fight of UFC Fight Night 139 on November 10th, with Winkeljohn in Perry’s corner and Jackson in Cerrone’s.